Ex-army man arrested for Rs 30 cr land fraud in Odisha capital

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch arrested a retired defence personnel from New Delhi for allegedly duping people of over Rs 30 crore promising them to provide land on the outskirts of the city, official sources said today.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Rakesh Rana was arrested from the national capital yesterday and was produced in a local court in New Delhi. The court granted the EOW to take Rana on transit remand to Bhubaneswar.

“Lt Col (Retd) Rakesh Rana and his accomplices defrauded serving and retired defence personnel of crores of rupees on the promise of providing land. He was arrested from New Delhi and brought to Odisha on transit remand after being produced in a local court in New Delhi,” Crime Branch Special DG BK Sharma said.

Notably, the retired defence personnel had allegedly cheated 542 serving and retired armed forces personnel by promising prime land under Giringaput Mouza in Chandaka area on the outskirt of the city.

Rana, a recipient of Kirti Chakra, and others had floated an NGO named ‘Sainik Welfare Organisation India’ at Dwarka in New Delhi.

The said NGO launched a plotted scheme spread over an area of around 27 acres at Giringaput Mouza in the name of ‘Defence Intercity Vatika Association’ in the year 2011.

The organisation promised to hand over the plots to 542 defence and ex-defence personnel by June 2012 with valid documents after completing the procedure of registration, mutation and conversion.

SWO-India was promoting this Bhubaneswar project through accused Purna Chandra Panda, who was arrested by EOW on August 27 last year, managing director of Bhubaneswar based developer M/S Brookson Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, with the assistance of Pradipta Kumar Barik– Project Liaisoning Officer of the NGO. Barik was also arrested by EOW in September last year.

After collecting the amount, the accused neither provided the land nor returned the deposited amount.